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Season Seven Episode 143 Book Series: The Language of Music with Michelle Margiotta Michelle's Website Michelle's Book The Language of Music Dr. Michelle Margiotta is a composer, arranger, and music educator.  Those who have worked alongside her give great acclaim to both her orchestrations and compositions, as well as to Michelle herself.  "...the most unique aspect of her gifts is her extraordinary ability to orchestrate.  When you hear one of her arrangements - your heart, mind and soul can't help but sour...", Kathy Troccoli, award-winning singer/songwriter.  Producer Sal Oliveri might sum it up best when he says, "Michelle is truly a gifted storyteller with a unique ability to take you on an emotional journey.  Her orchestrations are distinctly imaginative..." For the past year, Michelle has been orchestrating and arranging The God of the Other Side & The God of the How and When Oratorios, as well as The Shalom Reprise and Overture with Emmy ...

 Season Seven Episode 138 Composing with Students:  Lesson Processes and Ideas You Can Use Composition can be an intimidating word.  Where do you start?  How do you make the process meaningful for students, but not too difficult or so stressful that you want to pull your hair out in the process.  I’m going to share the process I used with my fifth graders this past week.  There are several ways you can go about the composition process with this lesson and the nice thing about it is that you can decide where your final product ends.  There are always ways to extend the process, but these steps are not always necessary.  The goal is that students create something that they are proud of, that demonstrates their musical skills, can be performed well, and that students can understand.  Here are process ideas as well as the specific process I used with my students. Before you begin teaching the composition process, figure out what music concept ...

Season Two Episode 73 Highlights from 2019 Podcast Episodes It has been one year since this podcast went live and I’m incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to share my passion for music education, my passion for health in regards to taking care of ourselves as humans and educators physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and the opportunity to  talk with other music educators who have so much to share with all of us. I’ve chosen a few segments from episodes throughout the year! Let’s start with my very first interview ever with my friend Vicki Suarez in season one episode 6 on the topic of Songworks.  Vicki is a fantastic music educator and had so much to share about the principles within Songworks. Something that was new to me were the ideas of idiographs and song dotting.   Excerpt from Episode  In season one episode 17 I had the privilege of talking with educator and author Georgia Newlin about part-singing.  She shared s...

Season Two Episode 39 Composition with Lane Harder Lane Harder teaches composition and music theory at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  He holds degrees from Southern Methodist University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Texas.  He completed a year of resident study at Kings College in London and earned three certificat de stage from the (EAMA) European American Musical Alliance Summer Program in Paris, France.  Dr. Harder is a composer and percussionist.  His works have been performed by the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Opera Theatre, Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra, Percussion Group 72 (Japan), Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), The University of Texas New Music Ensemble, and many other artists in North America, Europe, and Asia.  His music has been performed on programs at PASIC - The Percussive Arts Society International Conventions - in 2004, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017.  His performances and his original mus...

Composition and Teaching High School Music with Evan Ramos Season 1: Episode 15 Evan Ramos is the Assistant Choir Director at Carroll High School in Southlake, TX. He received his Bachelors in Music Education from the University of North Texas and recently earned his Masters of Music from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. As a composer and arranger, his works have been performed at colleges, schools, and conventions around the nation. Two of his compositions for TTB Choirs ( O Magnum Mysterium and One Light ) won "Best Overall" and "Best in Class" at the 2015 and 2016 TMEA Composition Competition hosted by the College Division. Evan was also nominated for "Best Music Direction" and "Best Orchestra" at the 2015 and 2018 Dallas Summer Musical High School Musical Theatre Awards. He is a member of TMEA, TCDA, ACDA, and ASCAP. Evan lives in Dallas, TX with his wife Sarah and his two daughters. Compositions: O Magnum Mysteriu...

Composing Original Pieces with Students I'm going to share ideas for how to create original pieces with students using barred instruments and unpitched percussion.  There are many ways to go about this so this is not the only way to approach composition.  This is something that I've done with my students and had success in helping them create an original piece.  The outline I'll give is a great way to incorporate chord progressions, learning how to layer complementary rhythms, identifying parts of chords (roots/thirds/fifths) and chord progressions. STEP ONE:  Use I, IV and V chords from the key of C, F or G.   For this example, I'll be in the key of C Major.   So our chord progressions would be: C - C/E/G is the I chord F - F/A/C is the IV chord G - G/B/D is the V chord I would provide students with a four measure phrase in Meter of 4/4 that looks something like this: C  /  F  /  C  /  G    ...